Do you know any real-world, useful WPF/Silverlight applications using MVVM?

Question

I'm looking for code of full applications that (1) use the MVVM pattern and (2) are approachable for WPF/Silverlight/MVVM beginners. So far I have only found:

• Crack.NET - A runtime debugging and scripting tool (useful but quite complicated)
• CipherText - WPF Password Manager (perfect but written in VB.NET)

What are some others?

preferably smaller helper apps or tools that use MVVM but that have a completed feel, perhaps with WPF/Silverlight graphic/animation goodness, etc. which show not only the MVVM concepts being used but in a context of a real-world, completed application

My Contribution

Thanks for all the tips, I collected together a list of 15+ MVVM code examples and posted the here:

Overview of WPF/Silverlight code examples that help you learn MVVM.

Answer 1

Try this one. Also, Family.Show may be useful.

HTH, Kent

Answer 2

I too class myself as a beginner in MVVM developing a large scale application for about a month now. I'm over most of the main hurdles, but keep getting confused up by a few things.

Be careful with the suggestions from Kent. They'll get you started, but the subtle differences in Silverlight and WPF will trip you up occasionally (triggers are one).

I don't know of any full sites, but I started with the Composite Application Guidance and PRISM libraries. These a little too cumbersome for a 'beginner' and just MVVM, but some of the concepts are very useful (event aggregator for example).

I suggest that you read blogs by Josh Twist, Josh Smith, Shaun Wildermuth and Nikhil Kothari. These guys are very knowledgeable. They are also very open to answering questions too.

What is your development background? Some of the concepts surrounding method calls, responses and delegation are a real break from "traditional sequential" coding techniques.

HTH, Mark

Answer 3

I've been using MVVM for the last couple of months on a project and it's been fantastic. I've been doing UI work for over 12 years and it's the best thing I've come across.

Answer 4

The WPF Disciples group has decided to create a real-world MVVM + Mediator reference application similar to the Pet Shop refence application for Web Apps. Your can follow the development on codeplex here

Answer 5

Given the question, you may be interested in the current effort going on to create a "Pet Shop" type reference implementation for M-V-VM. You can join the conversation or follow progress here.

Answer 6

I have been using MVVM for about 2 years now, and I can say that it is a resounding success. I have shipped one large-scale medical imaging solution using MVVM in Silverlight. I am also about to ship a complicated WPF application using Prism and MVVM extensively. In fact, I don't know how I'd achieve some of my problems elegantly without MVVM in this more recent application.

+1 on MVVM. It works. It is testable. It is extensible. It facilitates developer-designer workflows. It ALSO doesn't have to be messy and plumbing-heavy.

In addition, I created a medium-sized Silverlight application using MVVM for the CodeMash conference in January. You can see it and get the source code here.

Answer 7

Speaking about real-world apps, Silverlight's own feature-sets are still far from what business developers require. None of frameworks seem to have the solutions for a true real-world business apps yet.

From my experiences, a real-world business app should have at least the following:

• Consistent and solid navigation interface.
• Multi-level/child navigation with browser's integrated journal. I.e, access a specific customer by /Customers/{ID} without replacing parent content.
• Page-level security and authentication. I.e, Only Products Manager can access "/Products"
• Login redirection. I.e., if users aren't signed-in yet, access to a restricted page should redirect users to a login page. (This should be consistent with the whole navigation framework in-terms of back/forward capability, etc).

Now, if we go back to what Silverlight offer currently, none of the above scenarios can be easily implemented.

If this could be of any help, we've just released an advanced Silverlight toolset that puts together all the features mentioned above, plus developer's most wanted features: WPF-style routed command, routed events, delegate command, MVVM pattern, and many more.

Check out http://tinyurl.com/23qkpp7, try our real-world business application sample built entirely using MVVM pattern. Hope this helps.